Exploring the medieval world, and more

Monthly Archives: October 2018

Fancy a drive? Not far from Conwy in northern Wales, the road curves along a lush river valley. Soon, you come to a village nestling beside steeply wooded hills.

Trefiw holds a slice of magic for me with its lovely stone mill still in operation beside a raging stream, complete with a cafe. But my fancy is taken by a tiny church. Inside St Mary’s, you’ll be taken aback to find a life-size knight kneeling at the altar. Just who is he and why is he here?

Storyboards explain the mystery…

Centuries past, Prince Llewellyn the Great, a medieval warrior and knight – the Lord of Snowdon, rode along the same path with his family and entourage to visit his hunting lodge. His wife found the existing church, high up in the forest, too difficult to access so the prince built another one on the valley floor.

You can almost hear the exhausted pleading in her voice and the Prince’s deliberations and efforts trying to please this, his much younger wife who was relatively new to her demanding royal duties.

I think this place is special for there are not many sites in Wales where you can walk in the footsteps of the Prince. His adversaries succeeded in their attempts to obliterate his memory, knocking down palaces, slighting castles and destroying the priories which he set up. Why is greatness attributed to him and why was he such a threat to his English neighbours?

Known for his military victories – a master of diplomacy and strategy, he also made many changes to aspects of Welsh life. Not all his initiatives were welcome, especially around the medieval rules of hereditary accession, but literature flourished under his rule and he was a generous religious patron. Trying to modernize his country, he implemented aspects of the Magna Carta, changed laws, settled internal disputes and built castles to counter the aggression of the Marcher lords over the border. All this is in a country of farmsteads rather than towns; no roads to speak of, only bridal pathways within a wild mountainous landscape blessed with an unforgiving climate.

St Marys has been rebuilt a number of time but its footprint remains unchanged. Walking into this slice of welsh history, there is a palpable feeling of times past… a whispered love story between Llewellyn and Joan (the illegitimate daughter of King John) whose tragic tale is well documented in Sharon Penman’s Welsh trilogy.

We stayed nearby. The warm and welcoming Groes Inn offers a cosy muddle of bars and beams. After a scrumptious meal and a tasty wine or two, it’s a comfortable place to reflect on your journey.